Medicine Hat Minute: Addictions Funding, School Funding, and Industrial Plan Approved

Medicine Hat Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Medicine Hat politics

This Week In Medicine Hat:

• It’s going to be a pretty quiet week at City Hall with only one meeting scheduled, at least as of right now.
  
  
• That one event will be a meeting of the Public Services Committee today at 8:00 am. At this meeting, the Committee will receive the Working Groups 2021 Annual Reports, a Co-op Place Report presentation, and a member resignation and appointment to the Truth and Reconciliation Recommendation Committee. The topics included in the Managing Director’s Service Area Update are the Transit Fair Entry Pilot Project, a Monarch Theatre Update, and the Playground at the Big Marble Go Centre.
  
  
• With Easter just around the corner (already!?) the Davis GMC Showroom is hosting Hop & Shop Local this Saturday, featuring more than 30 local vendors, an Easter egg hunt, a colouring contest, grab bags, and much more. The event is family-friendly and celebrates community and local businesses.

Last Week In Medicine Hat:

• Last Monday, City Council approved the industrial park plan, meaning the numerous organizations and clubs in the area will have to either sign new leases with the City or pursue other alternatives, including potentially moving to another site altogether. Discussion of the plan initially began weeks ago, in an hours-long debate and public hearing which heard stakeholders such as the Medicine Hat Speedway, Motocross, Drag Strip, and Rifle and Revolver Club express their concern that such an expansion would seriously put their long-term operations in jeopardy. Officials and consultants with the plan's promoter, Invest Medicine Hat, say such a scenario isn’t likely to occur for at least 20 years.
  
  
• The Province announced $825,000 in funding for the City to improve local access to addiction treatment. The funding will go entirely towards one Medicine Hat organization, ‘Our Collective Journey’, a group dedicated to supporting people with addictions and mental health challenges. In addition, the Province also made the announcement that Medicine Hat police will now be able to offer addiction treatment to people immediately upon their arrest, through Alberta’s Virtual Opioid Dependency Program.
  
  
• Medicine Hat's CAPE School is set to benefit from a $72 million provincial investment into charter schools. The school is one of 16 charter schools that will see $25 million in additional operating funding and another $47 million in capital investments. “This investment builds on our commitment to strengthening Alberta’s long and successful tradition of providing choice in education,” Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said in a release.

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